Are movie critics now tired of Marvel movies?

F-ck Iron Man and the Marvel Universe. Robby is top dog.

Unlike American audiences, critics seem to have long grown tired of Marvel movies

“Ugly and artless”, “Marvel’s rock bottom”, “the most feckless, spineless blockbuster of the last decade” — it’s fair to say that if you were in two minds about splashing out on a ticket to see “Captain America: Brave New World” over Presidents’ Day weekend, the critical reception might have been enough to convince you to save your cash… and yet.

The new movie, the 35th installment in the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe, seems to be building on the studio’s impressive 2024, at least if its opening weekend is anything to go by. Disney is forecasting a $100 million domestic box office gross over the extended Presidents’ Day weekend. If accurate, the top 4 highest-grossing movies for the 4-day period ever would now all be from the MCU. The film is also tipped to take more than $192 million around the world on its first weekend, which is no mean feat considering the critical mauling it received pre-release.

Slop machine

Anyone who’s kept up with the blockbuster discourse on how film buffs and reviewers feel about Marvel films will be well aware of the various criticisms leveled at the productions, though things feel like they’ve escalated around some recent releases, with Vulture arguing that the Disney-owned studio is now just a “giant slop machine”. Of course, millions of us love slop, even if we pretend not to sometimes.